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"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 2. Read OP, your 2500K will run Witcher 3. MX100s! 970!

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hoserx

Member
Oh hey! I just read your post. The ASUS VG248QE was $195 at Newegg. I think the other monitors like BenQ looked better to me because of better integrated software for adjustments, and a better stand, but this low price quite enticing.

195???? I saw it at 219 on black friday........Wow. I must have missed that. Great score.
 
195???? I saw it at 219 on black friday........Wow. I must have missed that. Great score.

Thanks, I've been seeing prices like ~$215 quite often nowdays so I think it could come back.
What's weird is going back on the deal page, I can't find 195 anywhere... I could've sworn it was there. This is how the price worked out, with 30-day premier trial:
t0CXZLM.png
 

Kevyt

Member
Hello guys, I have a question, what would you guys choose; a Sapphire Tri-x r9 290x or a Zotac GTX 970?

I have an r9 290x and a 970, and I don't know which one to use/keep. I'm thinking of selling one, but I'm also thinking of keeping both of them. However I only have one rig. What do you guys think?
 

Miutsu

Member
Thanks, I've been seeing prices like ~$215 quite often nowdays so I think it could come back.
What's weird is going back on the deal page, I can't find 195 anywhere... I could've sworn it was there. This is how the price worked out, with 30-day premier trial:

Maybe it was -25 from paying with Visa checkout? There was a promo for that in November.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Are all the SSD's today pretty much around that 550.read/write territory? I've settled on the MX100 512gb for my Haswell-E build.
 

jordn613

Unconfirmed Member
I ordered the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD on sale today and I'm in need of some help.

The only experience I have installing a new drive was when I first built my rig a few years ago and had a friend help. I currently have two drives installed, one an SSD with Windows and immediate games and the other a 500gb drive for additional storage/games.

I have a Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case and a ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard.

I believe that the current SSD is in some type of cage and it may have room for this new SSD, as well?

That said, both drives are using the only two SATA III slots. What is my best route here to install the new SSD? Can I unhook the HDD and connect it to a SATA II slot and put the new SSD onto the now open SATA III?
 

Boston

Member
mATX small enough?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($65.22 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $699.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 17:22 EST-0500

Or is ITX more your size?

This is looking really good. Is a i5 vs i7 a big difference? Also is this all I need to have this computer up and running?
 
Don't those negate SLI if used? I've done a lot of reading and seeing in some videos in on some forums that if you use an M SATA or whatever its called slot on the X 99 boards, that you lose the ability to do SLI but I could have misread.

You probably know more than I do. I think they are too expensive, so I wasn't suggesting one.
 

RGM79

Member
I ordered the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD on sale today and I'm in need of some help.

The only experience I have installing a new drive was when I first built my rig a few years ago and had a friend help. I currently have two drives installed, one an SSD with Windows and immediate games and the other a 500gb drive for additional storage/games.

I have a Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case and a ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard.

I believe that the current SSD is in some type of cage and it may have room for this new SSD, as well?

That said, both drives are using the only two SATA III slots. What is my best route here to install the new SSD? Can I unhook the HDD and connect it to a SATA II slot and put the new SSD onto the now open SATA III?
According to the specs, your case supports either two 3.5" drives, three 2.5" drives, or one 2.5" drive plus one 3.5" drive.

Yeah, you're not going to be able to mount two 2.5" drives and one 3.5" drive all together. You either need a different case, or you will have to be content with one of the SSDs lying at the bottom of the case either loose or taped secure, or maybe tuck it in somewhere where it won't come loose. There's no safety issues with loose solid state drives, they are solid state and have no moving parts to be damaged. All the same, it's safer to secure the extra 2.5" drive somewhere so it won't be loose if you ever need to move the case around.

As for connecting the drives.. Well, shit. If yours is the ASRock H77M, then you only have two SATA ports, period. If you absolutely want all three drives connected but don't want to upgrade motherboard and CPU, then you will need a SATA controller card. They go for $20 or so, and hopefully you'll already have a SATA cable to connect it. The two SSDs should be connected to the SATA ports native to the motherboard, while the hard drive can be connected to the SATA controller card.

This is looking really good. Is a i5 vs i7 a big difference? Also is this all I need to have this computer up and running?
For most games, no, the performance difference between the i5 4690K and the i7 4790K is very little, practically nothing, except for maybe a couple of games.

An OS like Windows is still needed, that costs $100 retail, $20 elsewhere.

Also, I think costs can be cut a bit further, but most importantly, that heatsink might not fit in the case. The heatsink's 159mm height is larger than the case's 155mm clearance for CPU cooler.
 
This is looking really good. Is a i5 vs i7 a big difference? Also is this all I need to have this computer up and running?

don't forget your OS

Also, If you are going to do Wii emulation you probably want to add a Bluetooth dongle to that if you don't own one already. Same for a WiFi dongle.



edit: hey kharma45, are you sure the cooler fits the case?
 

paskowitz

Member
Just installed an HT Omega Claro Halo XT...

the sound... the sound...

Even with my old speakers and mediocre headphones... wow. Movies and FLAC files sound amazing.
 

kamakazi5

Member
I was going to try and sell some parts out of an old build of mine and want to put it in the Buy/Sell/Trade thread. I know the PSU and GPU are in good condition as those were bought well after I built it but I'm not sure about the motherboard/CPU (should I be selling this together or separate?).

The motherboard is an ASUS P5N-E SLI and CPU is an Intel (R) Core 2 6400 @2.13GHz.

I know they are fairly old but I wouldn't be looking to get very much for them.
 

wowzors

Member
Just installed my Gigabyte 970 GTX G1. I can tell a little difference in AC Unity, hopefully in the future I will notice some bigger differences. One weird thing that happened I turned off the computer removed my 770 and put in the 970 and the nvidia drivers werent working. I had to reinstall (that failed) restart the computer then reinstall again and all seems well.
 

RGM79

Member
This is looking really good. Is a i5 vs i7 a big difference? Also is this all I need to have this computer up and running?

I took a closer look at that build, and here's my modified version of it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 285 2GB ICEQ X² Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $708.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 23:54 EST-0500

A stronger graphics card and power supply, cheaper faster RAM, and a case and heatsink that's compatible with each other.

I was going to try and sell some parts out of an old build of mine and want to put it in the Buy/Sell/Trade thread. I know the PSU and GPU are in good condition as those were bought well after I built it but I'm not sure about the motherboard/CPU (should I be selling this together or separate?).

The motherboard is an ASUS P5N-E SLI and CPU is an Intel (R) Core 2 6400 @2.13GHz.

I know they are fairly old but I wouldn't be looking to get very much for them.

You might as well sell them together unless someone wants to buy one of them separately. I see parts like that going on craigslist for $50 at most.
 

clem84

Gold Member
I'm DL so much stuff I'm running out of space. I'm looking to buy a new hard drive in the 2-3TB range. Any suggestions for reliable brans?
 

cicero

Member
This is my already purchased partial build that I started a while back but stopped halfway through due to financial issues. I am finishing it now and I would appreciate any suggestions for the best Mobo, graphics card, and RAM to complete this build. I am leaning towards a Z97 motherboard and a GTX 970, I also have no clue about RAM but prefer quality.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard:
Memory:
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:
 

RGM79

Member
This is my already purchased partial build that I started a while back but stopped halfway through due to financial issues. I am finishing it now and I would appreciate any suggestions for the best Mobo, graphics card, and RAM to complete this build. I am leaning towards a Z97 motherboard and a GTX 970, I also have no clue about RAM but prefer quality.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard:
Memory:
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card:
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive:

What's your budget for the remaining parts? Those existing parts must be from quite some time ago.
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
Okay, so I should be getting our stuff tomorrow. The only part I'm nervous about is installing the OS without an optical disc drive.

Any good videos on how to do that? Ideally, I would just plug a fucking USB into it or use an external DVD drive, but I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing.

I wonder if I need to borrow someone's PC laptop or something?

(z97 motherboard BTW)
 

Weevilone

Member
Don't those negate SLI if used? I've done a lot of reading and seeing in some videos in on some forums that if you use an M SATA or whatever its called slot on the X 99 boards, that you lose the ability to do SLI but I could have misread.

You're confusing X99 with Z97 boards. Z97 had to make some creative use of limited PCIE lanes to make everything work. The whole point of X99 is to have a lot more PCIE lanes to go around.
 

RGM79

Member
Ah, sorry I forgot to mention that. $500-600.

Not sure if you want to to fill out that $500-600, that's more than enough for the missing parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $0.00)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($111.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($125.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 M.2 240GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($334.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $572.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-02 02:10 EST-0500
 

RGM79

Member
So, I already would need a PC right? I dunno, I might just get a damn dvd drive tomorrow from a store. I really don't know what I'm doing at all and I'm coming from a purely MAC environment. We have a junky PC laptop for clients at work, but I don't wanna depend on it.

How did you buy a copy of Windows? Boxed copy, or digital download with product key?
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
How did you buy a copy of Windows? Boxed copy, or digital download with product key?

I haven't bought it yet. I have been scratching my head about what the cheapest route to take would be.

It looks like I can make a bootable USB with boot camp, which is pretty cool. SO I may just buy a boxed version and use the code from that and download an iso. Looking for an iso now actually.

Is that stupid?
 

RGM79

Member
I haven't bought it yet. I have been scratching my head about what the cheapest route to take would be.

It looks like I can make a bootable USB with boot camp, which is pretty cool. SO I may just buy a boxed version and use the code from that and download an iso. Looking for an iso now actually.

Is that stupid?

The cheapest route would be to buy a Windows product key from Reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap. It's about $20. They're most likely resold keys from educational sources like Dreamspark and Technet.

Then you just have to download the corresponding ISO for the product key for the version of Windows you bought. Load that onto the USB drive with the tool mentioned by Mr Nightman and plug it in when you turn on the computer for the first time. Press the key indicated on screen for boot menu/options and choose the USB drive. Then the Windows installer will load.

Here's instructions for official Windows ISO downloads.
 
Guys, I need some help. Basically I have a choice between an Inno3D GTX 970 HerculeZ X2 and a Gigabyte G1 GTX 970. Now I know that Gigabyte is better known brand and probably a better product, but the issue here in my country is that I am getting the Inno3D card about $100 cheaper than the Gigabyte G1. Anyone have any experience with the Inno3D because I havent been able to find many reviews online, at least from any well known websites. Is it okay if I go for the Inno3D over the Gigabyte bearing in mind the price and the fact that I probably wont be OCing it myself?

My main concern is cooling with the Inno3D. Is that fine or has anyone experienced any problems? Would really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.
 
I haven't bought it yet. I have been scratching my head about what the cheapest route to take would be.

It looks like I can make a bootable USB with boot camp, which is pretty cool. SO I may just buy a boxed version and use the code from that and download an iso. Looking for an iso now actually.

Is that stupid?

The cheapest route would be to buy a Windows product key from Reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap. It's about $20. They're most likely resold keys from educational sources like Dreamspark and Technet.

Then you just have to download the corresponding ISO for the product key for the version of Windows you bought. Load that onto the USB drive with the tool mentioned by Mr Nightman and plug it in when you turn on the computer for the first time. Press the key indicated on screen for boot menu/options and choose the USB drive. Then the Windows installer will load.

Here's instructions for official Windows ISO downloads.

Listen to this man on how to find the cheapest key and how to install it.

Do it like this to make a installation usb.

Download this.(official MS media creation tool)
Run it on your boot camp.
Choose the option you want, language, edition and architecture. (eng, windows 8.1, 64 bits for example)
Choose the ISO option.
Let it do the rest.

This way you don't have to worry about finding the ISO, it will do it automatically.
This is as straight forward as it gets.

Guys, I need some help. Basically I have a choice between an Inno3D GTX 970 HerculeZ X2 and a Gigabyte G1 GTX 970. Now I know that Gigabyte is better known brand and probably a better product, but the issue here in my country is that I am getting the Inno3D card about $100 cheaper than the Gigabyte G1. Anyone have any experience with the Inno3D because I havent been able to find many reviews online, at least from any well known websites. Is it okay if I go for the Inno3D over the Gigabyte bearing in mind the price and the fact that I probably wont be OCing it myself?

My main concern is cooling with the Inno3D. Is that fine or has anyone experienced any problems? Would really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.

Inno3D is fine, at least I have a friend who has an Inno3D 680 and it works brilliantly.
 

kharma45

Member
This is looking really good. Is a i5 vs i7 a big difference? Also is this all I need to have this computer up and running?

Bar an OS yes. However the cooler will need to be look at, see below

edit: hey kharma45, are you sure the cooler fits the case?

I thought so. The Plus is marginally shorter than the Evo and the Evo seems to fit fine

PCs%20CM%20352%20(1).JPG


but if you go by the official specs the 352 can take a cooler of 155mm high, and the 212 is 158.5

NZXT Havik 120 is 160mm in height and touches the side of the panel

20060323235l.JPG


Will need to look in to this more.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
You're confusing X99 with Z97 boards. Z97 had to make some creative use of limited PCIE lanes to make everything work. The whole point of X99 is to have a lot more PCIE lanes to go around.
I think I'm going to end up getting the Samsung to the 256gb M.2 drive for my build. It seems like you can boot from the device so this is going to be a tangible upgrade from my 840 Pro.

I don't remember if it was a PCI lane issue but reading a bit more last night, it seems like I'm safe going that route.
 

jfoul

Member
I'm finally getting around to overclocking my CPU & GPU. I really haven't overclocked much since the original Athlon. Everything is set to auto and I'm changing the multiplier to 43. It's stable at 4.3 ghz, but I'm pretty sure I'm missing some fine details. I think the vcore might be setting itself a bit high at 1.32. I've also hit 4.4 ghz with ease with the same method, but I backed down because of the vcore. This bios has a lot of automatic options. I must be missing something, any advice?
  • CPU: i7 4770K
  • MB: Gigabyte Z87MX-D3H-CF (BIOS F7)
  • MEM: G.SKILL Ares Series 2133 / 16GB (F3-2133C10D-8GAB)
  • HSF: Corsair H60 (New Revision)
  • PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2
  • GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming (Rev 1.1)
626Hy1Il.png


My current stable GTX 970 OC
XOHxABql.png


Update: I watched a video that has the same bios for my Gigabyte MB. Seems this vcore is a bit high for a 4.3 OC. How do I find the default vcore of the CPU? I would like to push this to 4.5-4.7 without getting too crazy with the vcore.

Update 2: 4.4ghz stable with 1.202 vcore. Passed intel burn test standard and high. Previously passed standard and failed high on a 1.201 vcore.
 

b0bbyJ03

Member
Anyone have experience with the external sound blaster cards. The X-FI surround 5.1 pro in particular? I bought one so that I can use it with my Astro headset for the optical out but it does not seem to be putting out 5.1, only 2.0. I'm Willing to swap it out for another if anyone wants to make a recommendation as well. I'm just looking for Dolby digital from an optical connection.
 

Olli128

Member
Hey guys I'm upgrading from my really old AMD athlon based build haha, I want to get something that I can use for Wii / PS2 emulation, WoW / Runescape and the occasional PC exclusive like Civilization, Age of Wonders etc that can't be played on PS4 (my main platform) - how is this build?





CPU: Intel i5 4460 - £131
Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 LGA1150 £46.11 (Micro-ATX, is that okay for the case?)
Memory: 8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600hz (blue) £64.33
Storage: Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB MX100 (Already bought) (I have a 4tb mybook for media)
Video Card: Sappire R9 270X Dual X (Thanks Haribi) £125
Case: CiT Neptune Gaming Case £29.37
Power Supply: Novatech 500W PSU (From last build)

£395.81


Is this all compatible / enough for 1080p on 4X / RTS / MMO games?
 

Haribi

Why isn't there a Star Wars RPG? And wouldn't James Bond make for a pretty good FPS?
Hey guys I'm upgrading from my really old AMD athlon based build haha, I want to get something that I can use for Wii / PS2 emulation, WoW / Runescape and the occasional PC exclusive like Civilization, Age of Wonders etc that can't be played on PS4 (my main platform) - how is this build?





CPU: Intel i5 4460 - £131
Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 LGA1150 £46.11 (Micro-ATX, is that okay for the case?)
Memory: 8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600hz (blue) £64.33
Storage: Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB MX100 (Already bought) (I have a 4tb mybook for media)
Video Card: Sappihre Radeon 6770 (From last build, not sure what to upgrade too)
Case: CiT Neptune Gaming Case £29.37
Power Supply: Novatech 500W PSU (From last build)

£270.81

Suggestions on what graphics card to get if this build is okay would be useful, the 6770 is fine for 720p gaming but I'm looking to get 1080p/60 on medium, hopefully for £150-£200 at most.


My suggestion would be the Radeon 270x or the 280x
 

Mr.NiceGuy

Member
Guys please comment on my build. Read most of the replies here and this setup is from parts you all recommend but I'm putting it here just to make sure I'm not missing anything

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($299.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($354.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1323.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-02 08:55 EST-0500


Couple of notes: I'm buying the case from the local stores in my country since shipping it from the US would be costly. I'm not sure about the GTX 970 I'm listing here and frankly I'm having problem locating one as all the 970's keep getting sold out, if anyone can refer me to a good one available from Amazon or newegg I'd be thankful.

So without the case and the DVD writer is $1324 good deal for this build?
 

jordn613

Unconfirmed Member
According to the specs, your case supports either two 3.5" drives, three 2.5" drives, or one 2.5" drive plus one 3.5" drive.

Yeah, you're not going to be able to mount two 2.5" drives and one 3.5" drive all together. You either need a different case, or you will have to be content with one of the SSDs lying at the bottom of the case either loose or taped secure, or maybe tuck it in somewhere where it won't come loose. There's no safety issues with loose solid state drives, they are solid state and have no moving parts to be damaged. All the same, it's safer to secure the extra 2.5" drive somewhere so it won't be loose if you ever need to move the case around.

As for connecting the drives.. Well, shit. If yours is the ASRock H77M, then you only have two SATA ports, period. If you absolutely want all three drives connected but don't want to upgrade motherboard and CPU, then you will need a SATA controller card. They go for $20 or so, and hopefully you'll already have a SATA cable to connect it. The two SSDs should be connected to the SATA ports native to the motherboard, while the hard drive can be connected to the SATA controller card.


For most games, no, the performance difference between the i5 4690K and the i7 4790K is very little, practically nothing, except for maybe a couple of games.

An OS like Windows is still needed, that costs $100 retail, $20 elsewhere.

Also, I think costs can be cut a bit further, but most importantly, that heatsink might not fit in the case. The heatsink's 159mm height is larger than the case's 155mm clearance for CPU cooler.

The case has 4 additional SATA II ports, so this can't be right. Anyone else have input on this? Pretty sure I should be able to mount the SSD and connect the HDD to a SATA II.
 

bathsalts

Member
Hello guys, is there any kind of consensus regarding g-sync at the moment compared to just adding more frames? I'm currently on a single 780 and am at an impasse as to my upgrade path.

I'm stuck between buying another 780 for sli, perhaps selling mine and picking up a 980 or giving g-synch a go with a rog swift.

I'm sort of loathe to give up the beautiful colour of my Qnix for a TN panel but its getting tougher to push 60 at 1440 these days. Overclock forums said I should probably just wait, seeing if anyone else had thoughts, thanks.
 

garath

Member
The case has 4 additional SATA II ports, so this can't be right. Anyone else have input on this? Pretty sure I should be able to mount the SSD and connect the HDD to a SATA II.

He's not talking about the case there. He's talking about the motherboard. It appears your motherboard only supports 2 SATA drives. :(
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
This one I posted up above would be a reasonable starting point

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($164.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($90.29 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $616.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 16:24 EST-0500

Cut back on the Z97 board to one from the OP to get below $600. Z97 is overkill for your needs since you can't OC that i5.

So I think I'm going to order this build today. Is it worth spending a little extra for a hybrid drive?
 
So I think I'm going to order this build today. Is it worth spending a little extra for a hybrid drive?

No.

Either save up and go full SSD or rely on a mechanical, the extra cost for a hybrid is not worth the comparatively minimal performance gains. You can't really control (directly) what the tiny SSD portion of the drive caches, so if you play a bunch of different games a lot instead of just a few, you're not going to notice much of a change.
 

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
No.

Either save up and go full SSD or rely on a mechanical, the extra cost for a hybrid is not worth the comparatively minimal performance gains. You can't really control (directly) what the tiny SSD portion of the drive caches, so if you play a bunch of different games a lot instead of just a few, you're not going to notice much of a change.

Alright - so I'll order with mech drive and add an SSD later. That I CAN control and take advantage of, yes?
 
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